


rotten houses

by braigwen_s



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Ableist Language, Big Screwed-Up Families, Bigotry & Prejudice, Courtly politics, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24364204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braigwen_s/pseuds/braigwen_s
Summary: A Beifong and an Omo meet at a ball.
Relationships: Background Lin Beifong/Tenzin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	rotten houses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MusicPlayer81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicPlayer81/gifts).



“She’s young, to be a Matriach,” Beifong said to the Airbender, taking a sip of fine wine. Omo was already forty, but the mark of a stable House was one where the rulers lived long. Omo’s mother had died suspiciously young – as had her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother’s mother, and so on. Beifong Matriachs hadn’t died that young in centuries.

(The Omos were shamelessly transparent in their practices of both matricide and filicide. Beifongs tended just to practice the latter, and they hid it better.)

(According to the written law of Gaoling, there was not and never had been a Toph Beifong. The record skipped right to Lin, bastard, parentage thus too shameful to mention.)

“She’s old, to be alive,” Omo informed her retinue, behind her beautifully painted fan. Beifong was seventeen, but her mother was a cripple. Beifong was seventeen, but she was baseborn. Both she and her mother should have been killed behind closed doors, before they had ever had a chance to go outside. She hadn’t even been matched to a future husband, she was just courting the Avatar’s son with no written agreement, no promise of marriage and children. Omo was looking forward to outliving the Beifong line. If a noble had no match by seventeen, they’d never have one.

“Noble Lady Omo,” said Beifong, not smiling. She bowed, but not low enough.

“Noble Lady Beifong,” replied Omo. She smiled sweetly, and she bowed even higher.


End file.
